Sunday August 31st
The lights weren't turned on in the night bus from Hue to Hanoi so as the sun went down around 6pm, I sat back, listened to music and watched the stars for a good 4 hours. I then drifted in and out of thoughts but must have slept a little as I was surprised when we arrived in Hanoi at 6am. As we were all starting to wake, somewhat dazed, a man jumped onto the bus to tell us that the bus would not be taking us into the centre of the city but taxis would be provided for the remaining distance. The word "scam" jumped out at me so I told the taxi driver when we got in that the bus company was paying and after getting out to check, he then started the taxi. Of course at the hostel there was then a scene with the taxi driver telling the hostel staff that we were refusing to pay. We tried to find the number of the bus company on the internet but of course couldn't so had to pay in the end. Welcome to the capital!
After getting some breakfast at the hostel, we dragged our bodies to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. It took 30 minutes to get there and 2 minutes to see as the guards shuffled us around the semi-circle which enclosed him. As one would imagine, he was white and very still! Then we decided to tackle the Ho Chi Minh Museum which was a real struggle given the little sleep we had had on the night bus the night before. When I saw a large wonky table with a bowl of fruit on, I thought I was either a little delirious and too tired to work out what it meant or we had actually entered a museum dedicated to Dali. We left not knowing that much more than when we had entered and decided that the best place for us would be the hostel's barbecue and free beer session starting at 3pm. On the roof terrace we met a bunch of Austrians and thereafter it didn't take long to persuade Robbie to get his Lederhosen on and the Austrians to knock up a few classic Austrian songs on the guitar. I'm ashamed to say that the night ended in an Irish bar in the early hours of the morning dressed in wigs and funny hats. It was, indeed, quite a session!
Monday, September 1st
Again with not much sleep, we headed for Hanoi's market and then Hoa Lo Prison Museum. The market was as one would expect - busy, colourful and noisy - and the prison very interesting (it was where John McCain had been imprisoned). Feeling satisfied that we had done our tourist activities for the day, we then stopped off for a fruit shake before heading back to the hostel. It was back at the hostel that another incident that I have dreaded happened: all my photos were somehow wiped off my camera whilst trying to upload them. I fantically looked around for some computer whizz kid to help but everyone was as puzzled as I was. As we were leaving for our 3 day trip to Halong Bay first thing in the morning, I had to put it all out of my mind until we were back in Hanoi in a few days. I went to bed feeling frustrated and got little sleep again as we were sharing a dorm with 6 Irish people who couldn't settle down because one of them had cut his foot whilst out drinking and another was attacked in the middle of the night by a guy who had just arrived at the hostel claiming that the bed one of the girls was in was, in fact, his. The joys of sleeping in hostels.
